The bacteria causing melioidosis is on the move, according to the Northern Territory Health Department, which says at least one person has died from the disease this wet season.

The bacteria, which lives in soils and muddy water in the NT, the Kimberley region of Western Australia and northern Queensland and South-East Asia, comes to the surface after drenching rains.

There have been six cases in the NT this wet season and there are likely to be more.

The NT typically has 35 to 45 cases per wet season, though sometimes the figure is as high as 100, and last wet season there were 66 cases.

We recommend people who are at increased risk of meliodosis to not go out in stormy and windy times. People who are working with the environment such as tradies are also at risk.

Vicki Krause, director NT Centre for Disease Control

It can be contracted through drinking groundwater, cuts and abrasions, or breathed in after it has become aerosolised in windy weather, according to NT Centre for Disease Control director Vicki Krause.

"We recommend people who are at increased risk of melioidosis to not go out in stormy and windy times," she said.

"Eighty per cent of cases are people who have underlying risk factors.

"People who are working with the environment such as tradies are also at risk."

The risk factors include having a weak immune system, being diabetic or overusing alcohol, she said.

People with kidney disease and lung disease, and those undergoing cancer or steroid treatment will have weak immune systems, she said.

The disease is known as 'Nightcliff gardener's disease' after a suburb in Darwin where the bacteria is known to live in the soil.

People sleeping on bare dirt are also at risk of contracting the disease.

The Health Department said the melioidosis victim was an elderly man, but would not give further details.

It advised people wear waterproof footwear around mud, soil and areas of pooled water, and to wear gloves when handling soil or mud-soaked items.